President Joe Biden is sending troops to the southern border in preparation for a surge. Not a troop surge south, as in a moving army in war. The troops are meant to block the surge north.
The so-called Title 42 Public Health Authority directive/emergency/covid thing is set to expire this next Thursday, and the feds worry that this might signal to illegal aliens that it's time to head to El Norte.
Sending troops to south Texas or Arizona is nothing new. President Trump did it. President Obama did it. It's almost tradition. And no telling how many coyotes are whispering, or shouting, that now is the best time to cross into the United States. For a price, of course.
The 1,500 or so active-duty soldiers would help free up Homeland Security and Border Patrol types to do more in the field. There must be all kinds of support jobs that the soldiers could do, from driving trucks to coordinating supply lines. And thus keep those in military uniform from performing police functions.
But it seems all this expense could be avoided if we had a better wall.
The last administration didn't build a wall and get Mexico to pay for it. Nobody expected that to actually happen. The very slogan, and the back-and-forth at rallies, was performance art. But a wall is still needed between Mexico and the United States.
And why not? Other countries, even liberal European democracies, have border walls and fences. Borders make nations. So do laws.
For the record, note well, and you-could-look-it-up, this column has been pro-immigrant since memory runneth not to the contrary--but pro-legal immigrant. Those rushing across the border are breaking this nation's laws. And are thus illegal. La ley es la ley.
Sure as water flows downhill, workers go where the work is. Serious people understand as much. And surely there are some serious people left--the kind of people who think beyond bumper-sticker slogans. Anybody who can see what's happening along the southern border of the United States knows the status quo is unsustainable. Even dangerous. Not just for Americans, but for those crossing into this country. (Did you ever see the old black-and-white movie "The Ox-Bow Incident"? We recommend, because Henry Fonda & Co.)
According to CNN, there have been about 7,000 "daily encounters" on the southern border recently. And those are just the folks that authorities find!
There is a way to fix this modern American problem. And probably save lives of those trying to get here over dangerous terrain and cartel-held territory:
First, build a wall. It doesn't have to be a concrete wall. In some rustic and mountainous jurisdictions, cameras and drones could serve as a virtual wall--and as part rescue operation in those harsh environs.
After this wall is put up, and only after, Americans might find the political will (again) to get illegal aliens already here on some sort of path to citizenship. Needed: a rational system that would let our illegal guests report, pay a fine plus back taxes, learn the language, and then qualify for citizenship--at the end of the long line of folks who waited their turn. Whatever the solution, it's not blanket amnesty. Which hasn't worked the several times the American government has granted it in the past: Always with an eye to complete the wall later, which never gets done. Another amnesty would only invite more illegal aliens, and we'd have the same problem again in 10 years. Maybe bigger. Maybe sooner.
How did we get to this point? The usual way--half sloth, half rage, much as American politicians tend to handle so many other crises, whether illegal immigration or inflation or a bank collapse. The danger is ignored at first, then minimized, and then blamed on others without ever being addressed, let alone fixed. We wind up searching for scapegoats instead of solutions.
It might have been Winston Churchill who said Americans can be counted on to do the right thing--after trying everything else. Surely by now we've tried just about everything else to secure the southern border.
Why not try something that may actually work? Like a real border.